Bible Dictionary
Heron
The heron was a wading bird listed among the birds forbidden as food under the Law of Moses. The precise species intended by the Hebrew term is uncertain.
Definition
The heron was a large wading bird included among the birds forbidden as food in the Mosaic lists of unclean animals. The Hebrew term is uncertainly identified; suggested birds include the heron, ibis, and plover.
Biblical Usage
Herons appear in Leviticus 11:19 and Deuteronomy 14:18 in lists of birds that Israel was not to eat. The passages emphasize their ritual classification as unclean rather than their particular species.
Historical Background
Herons were common around the waters and marshes of Palestine, including the Jordan and the region of Merom. They nested among reeds and water grasses and included blue, white, and brown varieties. Their fish-eating habits and the tough, dark flesh of older birds were given as practical reasons for their exclusion from the diet.
Scripture References
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
(Lev. 11:19; Deut. 14:18), ranked among the unclean birds. The Hebrew name is ’anaphah, and indicates that the bird so named is remarkable for its angry disposition. “The herons are wading-birds, peculiarly irritable, remarkable for their voracity, frequenting marshes and oozy rivers, and spread over the regions of the East.” The Ardea russeta, or little golden egret, is the commonest species in Asia.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
(Leviticus 11:19; 14:18) a common large, wading, unclean bird. Nearly all of the species known in English ornithology are found in the vicinity of Palestine. Canon Cook and others think the bird intended is the plover (Charadrius aedicnemus), a greedy, thick kneed, high-flying migratory bird, very common in the East, on the banks of rivers and shores of lakes.—ED.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>her'-un ('anaphah; charadrios; Latin Ardea cinerea): Herons are mentioned only in the abomination lists of Le 11:19 (margin "ibis") and De 14:18. They are near relatives of crane, stork, ibis and bittern. These birds, blue, white or brown, swarmed in Europe and wintered around Merom, along the Jordan, at the headwaters of the Jabbok and along its marshy bed in the dry season. Herons of Southern Africa that summered in the Holy Land loved to nest on the banks of Merom, and raise their young among the bulrushes, papyrus, reeds and water grasses, although it is their usual habit to build in large trees. The white herons were small, the blue, larger, and the brown, close to the same size. The blue were 3 1/2 ft. in length, and had a 5-ft. sweep. The beak, neck and legs constituted two-thirds of the length of the body, which is small, lean and bony, taking its appearance of size from its long loose feathers. Moses no doubt forbade these birds as an article of diet, because they ate fish and in older specimens would be tough, dark and evil smelling. The very poor of our western and southeastern coast states eat them.</p><p>Gene Stratton-Porter</p>